A Los Angeles man was convicted Thursday of making criminal threats for linking a video of himself holding a handgun to an email sent to a Soka University official in which he claimed he would put the Aliso Viejo campus “on the map.”

The college official, who hadn’t spoken to Smith, 40, for more than nine years, received an email from him on Oct. 31, 2017 in which he asked if the campus’s policy on marijuana use had changed and claimed he had been “hounded” for using marijuana when he attended the school.

During Smith’s trial, Deputy District Attorney Brett Brian said Smith followed with a series of increasingly agitated emails to the same Soka official, culminating with one that included a link to a video of Smith laying down shirtless in an empty bathtub, holding a semi-automatic weapon and recounting negative experiences he had at the college.

In the email, the prosecutor said Smith wrote that he “may be coming for a campus visit very soon,” warned that he had “nothing to lose” and threatened that “Perhaps I will come back and put your little campus on the map.”

Orange County sheriff’s investigators found a YouTube page with videos created by Smith in which he spoke at length about was shootings. At the time of his arrest, police found nine loaded firearms, all registered to Smith, at his Los Angeles home.

Assistant Public Defender Brian Fusco, who represented Smith, denied that the emails were intended to be a threat. He also told jurors that the videos of Smith discussing shootings were recorded months earlier.

The defense attorney said Smith’s YouTube videos were discussions of current events meant to “shock” viewers into confronting uncomfortable topics.

Smith is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on June 1. He faces up to three years in state prison.

Sean Emery is a crime and public safety reporter for the Register who covers state and federal courts and criminal justice issues. He has worked for the Register since 2006, previously covering breaking news, the city of Irvine, the Orange County Great Park, and the city of San Juan Capistrano.